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Feasibility: is this project viable?

(This is a Book Excerpt from "Becoming Agile" by Greg Smith and Ahmed Sidky)

Our project backlogs are full of great ideas. In some cases, we get so excited about a great idea that we disregard all the challenges and jump right in to start development. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we have to abort.

Many companies struggle when trying to validate a project’s value. Some companies initialize a project without knowing if it’s viable; other companies scrutinize the value of a project for months before making a decision. There are issues with both approaches.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
How Scrum Increases Productivity: The Product Owner

In Scrum, the Product Owner role is the one person responsible for the project's vision and direction. He or she leads by communicating with the team, outlining chunks of work through the composition of product backlog items and then prioritizing those items.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Scrum and SVO-p

Scrum is unique in that the management method is consistently direct. All communication in authentic Scrum is concise, direct and clear. Scrum encourages responsibility. The daily stand-up meeting actively encourages personal responsibility to execute on specific work, and to be accountable to the Team. The three questions of Scrum are questions related to accountability for specific commitments.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
A Second Look at "Requirements Come Second"

My article, "Requirements Come Second," in a recent issue of Agile Journal caused something of a fuss. The piece was picked up by several more sites and was widely commented on - both on websites and in my inbox. I'm not entirely surprised by this reaction, I've been discussing this research for a year or so now and often find it surprises people. Given this level of interest it is worth looking at how people responded. It is also worth restating the key message: Requirements are an essential part of maximizing business value, but when an organization is struggling with effectiveness it is best to start change by improving delivery.

Allan Kelly's picture Allan Kelly
The Business Case for Agility

Too many technology projects fail to deliver the promised value, and some do not deliver at all. Traditional project management methods when applied to software initiatives continue to frustrate financial professionals and offer poor risk mitigation. In the current economic environment, businesses are forced to reduce their capital budgets and cannot afford to make significant investments without more certainty of appropriate return.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Executive Strategies for Agile Transition - Charlie Kennedy and Tom Paider
Podcast

Bob interviews Charlie Kennedy and Tom Paider about Executive Strategies for Agile Transition.

Bob Payne's picture Bob Payne
Continuous Integration and Testing

Lisa Crispin explains in this article how CI has become an absolute necessity for any software development team in this day and age. For those who have yet to fully embrace CI, this article gives you some great reasons you should, along with some helpful resources to get you started.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
What's So Special About Specialists?

If two projects in your organization require specific expertise that only one employee has, what do you do? Projects need to stay on track, but one person certainly can't be everywhere—or even two places—at once. In this column, Johanna Rothman shares a story of an organization stuck in the specialist mindset and offers some tips on how to escape if you're stuck there, too.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Tips and Advice - Beyond The Team - Sanjiv Augustine
Podcast

Bob interviews Sanjiv Augustine about agile transitions.

Bob Payne's picture Bob Payne
Deep Agile Conference 2009 - Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, Jack Ganssle
Podcast

A podcast about the Deep Agile 2009 conference.

Bob Payne's picture Bob Payne

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